Split verdict in Kristin Smart murder: Why Paul Flores was found guilty but not his dad and why an ‘innocent man’ still faces murder charges
Kristin Smart was found dead in the bed in her apartment of her son Paul Flores.
Kristin Smart was found dead in the bed of her son Paul Flores.
– From left, Robyn Cofer, Kristin Smart, Paul Flores Jr and Robyn’s boyfriend Justin Briscoe
An accidental overdose and the son of her boyfriend had the jury in tears.
Paul Flores Jr, the son of Robyn Smart, who was the victim in a murder that drew national headlines, was found guilty of second degree murder, the same crime for which his mother was found dead in her Washington, DC apartment.
But with the exception of the verdict, the trial was not about Kristin Smart at all.
The only verdict sought by Kristin’s attorneys was life without parole, which would have spared Flores the possibility of dying in prison.
Flores is a first-time criminal, his parents say. He and Kristin had met a couple of years earlier, but he had fallen out of love with her.
Robyn Smart, who was found dead in the bed of her son Paul Flores Jr after a “suicide by overdose” after a fight with her boyfriend, did not testify in the trial.
Kristin Smart’s parents say they want an inquest into her death
The verdict in the Smart trial
Flores, 29, was a guest of James Smart, her estranged husband, in the Smart apartment they shared after separating a couple of days before her death.
Kristin’s parents say she had been drinking heavily that night but had been drinking less the following night, the day before her death. The Smart family says Kristin’s father found her lying on top of a dresser, unconscious.
Flores had been at the Smart apartment with his friends while Robyn was home and at a friend’s house.
Smart’s attorney Scott S. Fogel did not contest the jury’s decision, but he issued a statement in response to the verdict.
“It is my belief that what the jury did in this case was the right verdict,” Fogel said.
Kristin Smart’s body
Kendra Smart, Kristin’s mother, who witnessed her daughter’s “miraculously” short life